Germany's Festo says it has "succeeded in deciphering the flight of birds."
Festo

Bird flight has fascinated mankind for centuries. German-based Festo now says it has deciphered it by building a robot seagull that flies like the real thing.

Festo

SmartBird is inspired by the herring gull and can take off by flapping its wings, and flying and landing autonomously. It moves by flapping and twisting its wings like a gull, and turns its head to steer--see the video below.

Built of carbon fiber and polyurethane foam, SmartBird weighs about 1 pound and has a wingspan of some 6.5 feet.

Though its inner structure recalls the flying machines of Leonardo da Vinci, it also houses a microcontroller, four servo drives, and a lithium polymer battery.

The wings are driven with an exterior rotor motor through a two-stage helical transmission, and the wing positions are monitored with sensors that relay data to ground operators via a radio link.

About the author

Crave freelancer Tim Hornyak is the author of "Loving the Machine: The Art and Science of Japanese Robots." He has been writing about Japanese culture and technology for a decade. E-mail Tim.
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